Some people are workhorses and will stay productive all the time they work. Unfortunately, they are a minority. Most people need incentives to stay productive.
“Work all the time you work”, “Keep things moving forward”, “Make the best use of time and motion”. Not everyone thinks like that when working for an hourly wage or a predetermined fixed salary. So what’s a leader to do?
Incentivize. It could be with measuring output and posting it publicly. It could be by paying a fixed percentage of revenue, commission or a “piecework plan” of some kind, or with simple recognition for good output in a culture that expects and acknowledges it.
Different work, people and environments beg different solutions – but do something to encourage the result you want your team to achieve. Duputizing a person to be their own supervisor with a predetermined incentive plan is better than any taskmaster watching over them – or none.
Do you think this would be the case for someone in a management position? I have a manager who gets paid 68K/year, has a company car and company gas card. I just gave him a 2K bonus for Christmas. But this week I realized he spends about 1-2 hours a day surfing the internet on company time. We are a bit slow right now but we are also in the middle of moving and renovating. He must see everyone working hard on this while he pretends to be busy on the computer. When I meet with him later today, I cant see my self telling him that I will give him an incentive (more) to do what he is already being paid to do. He should give us 8 hours of output that he is already being compensated for. I do believe in incentive for people who go above and beyond, but why incentivize someone who is barely doing there job?
People who don’t care go to work to their job, do as little as possible for as much as they can get, and deserve what they get in the end.
People who care go to their job to work , do as much as they can for what they get, and get what they deserve when they are recognized for what they do.
“Stay busy all the time”